Elder Testimonials

Esoteric Yoga is a modality accessible to all. Involving no strenuous postures or contorted positions, its gentle movements and offering of a deeper connection with oneself and one’s body, mean that it remains ever-accessible to us throughout the ageing process of our lives.

We share here testimonials from elder women participants in the program, who have re-discovered the natural grace and wisdom of a woman and are feeling more vitality, stillness and beauty than ever before. We trust you will enjoy the depth of inspiration offered...

Carmel Reid, 67 years - Northern NSW, Australia

The Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women has supported me in many ways. I’ve loved connecting with other women online, enabling me to feel very much part of a global community. The experiences that have been shared by everyone have truly inspired me, and given me more confidence to honour and share my own experiences. There is a written blog where people can share in more depth and we can be inspired by everybody’s progress.​I have loved the Esoteric Yoga itself because it reminds me that there is stillness within me at all times and all I have to do is connect with it wherever I am, whatever I am doing. The movements we do are very simple and there are no awkward positions for an older person like me, reminding me that stillness is in movement as well as when we are not outwardly moving. Esoteric Yoga is something I would recommend for women of all ages from 9 to 90 and beyond.

​Sept 2017

Lynda Marinelli, 66 years - Nova Scotia, Canada

​My first time to experience Esoteric Yoga was sitting in a chair, with a large group of over one hundred people in a hall, whilst attending a Universal Medicine Retreat in England. This was a form of Esoteric Yoga called 'sitting yoga'. I was completely in awe of how I felt in my body at the end of the session. The feeling was that my world around me felt expanded, simply because I connected to my body in such a way that I truly felt me. I was able to feel what it was like to be aware of my movements, and fully aware of my surroundings with a true sense of confidence in myself.

After this amazing introduction I signed up for a 6-week online program with the Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women.

I am 66 years old and very aware of taking loving care of my body and supporting my movements in such a way that I am not putting any extra strain on my organs or bones. That is where Esoteric Yoga comes in. There are no strenuous movements or outlandish stretches – I lay on my thick mat, with my cozy pink blanket and a lovely pillow under my head, in the comfort of my home. In the sessions of the program, we are supported to bring our awareness back to our body in each moment – all with the assistance of a loving practitioner. Through the experience, I’ve gained foundations of awareness I take very practically into my daily routine.

The sessions are of total connection, shared with women from many different parts of the world with one thing in common: “the joy of experiencing Esoteric Yoga, the Yoga of Stillness”. Stillness being an inward feel of how we are in our quality of being each day.

Oct 2017

Stephanie Stevenson, 67 years - Berkshire UK

I have found Esoteric Yoga to be a profound modality, offering an invitation to return to the true power of living and moving from the stillness, harmony and grace that is held deeply within all women.

At age 67, as a practitioner and ever-student of Esoteric Yoga myself, I am discovering and re-claiming a deeper level of communication with both myself and others – something that has been supported by the format of the Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women’s online sessions and shared comments on the program participants’ blog.

Personally I love these sessions and find the sharing with other women to be super supportive and deeply inspiring in bringing more honesty in communication. There is no room for the common way of women to be in comparison or jealousy – simply the joy of women of all ages coming together. We are empowered through our exploration of what holds us back from our true and natural way of expression through our bodies, to bring and confirm more of the truth of the woman we are, and the wisdom we innately hold, into our everyday life.

Re-connecting to the body so very gently through Esoteric Yoga has supported me to discover a relationship with myself and my body that I didn’t know was possible. It has been in integral part of the re-emergence of the beautiful, graceful and truly empowered ‘womanly woman’ I find myself to be today.

​Oct 2017

Elizabeth Douglas, 70 years - Nova Scotia, Canada

As an older woman, Esoteric Yoga has brought a huge awareness to me from within my body. Previously, to move my body lovingly, in tenderness, was something that had been foreign to me for most of my life. I have driven my body to prove something, to accomplish something, making my body hard, exhausted and unaware.

During my first Esoteric Yoga session, I became very aware of how exhausted I was in my body. Now with a deeper connection, I catch myself when my mind starts to take me back to my old habits.

There are many different forms of yoga in society and I have practised a few, yet none supported my body to surrender to the tenderness I truly am until now. True yoga – Esoteric Yoga – was introduced to me while I attended a group session brought through the teaching of Serge Benhayon. It is not something we learn but something we are and can return to, it is a Divine movement that we all have – yet have chosen not to be.

In Esoteric Yoga, the Yoga of Stillness, we are supported to discover a movement that comes from the stillness within our body. It is not something we do robotically or to get to a point of accomplishing something.

I am still surrendering in stillness as it brings me to a deeper awareness of who I really am, not what I had been pretending to be. I feel that I am reconnecting back to a naturalness I had actually moved away from for many years, perhaps many lifetimes.

The Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Woman has offered me a way to feel my body with honesty and I appreciate and love what I have re-connected to and found within.

Oct 2017

Ingrid Ward, 68 years - Auckland, New Zealand

I participated in my first Esoteric Yoga session in 2008 when I was 59 years old. I was initially shocked at what my body was showing me – the aches, the pains, the discomfort in sitting on the mat… and I couldn’t wait for the session to end. Yet, there was a part of me that knew I had been offered the most amazing gift. This amazing modality was simply and honestly showing me what the state of my body was, and it certainly wasn’t great but I knew that I had a choice to continue to explore what Esoteric Yoga was offering me and my body, or not. And I am so delighted that I made the choice to continue the exploration.

Fast forward nine years… I have come to absolutely love this wonderful modality and I am totally committed to participating in regular online Esoteric Yoga programs and sessions.

And I can say without a shadow of doubt that Esoteric Yoga has been the difference between me still having a very stiff and painful body and the very flexible and fluid body that I have now, two weeks away from my 68th birthday.

Each session offers me the space and the support to take the time to stop and truly allow myself to feel what my body is saying to me and no message is to be ignored. And, I have gradually been able to connect to the beautiful stillness that I, and every other woman, hold within. The possibility of this deep connection isn’t just with me during a session, but in every moment of my everyday should I choose to accept it – offering the beauty of its reflection to those around me.

I can absolutely recommend this wonderful modality to everyone of any age as my lived experience shows that it is never too late to make healing changes in your life.

Joan Calder, 76 years - Somerset, United Kingdom

I have tried many forms of yoga in the past but with all of them I felt there was something forced and hard, with little or no room for individual differences. When I was introduced to Esoteric Yoga it was very different. Here was a form that allowed each person to express very simple everyday movements, feeling for themselves, with no unnatural positions or postures that put the body under strain. This is very important for older people, not to push their bodies further than is appropriate. More important than anything else for me was realising what yoga is truly about, what its name means, and that is – union.

Union with what? Between what? I came to realise slowly how Esoteric Yoga asks us to consciously, in every moment, be present in our bodies through these simple everyday movements, and so be connected with our souls through this union of mind and body. In this total focus on being in the moment and fully aware of all that is going on, there is a profound stillness that holds us, and space happens within us and around us and time seems to expand. I find I grow in love and respect for my body, developing an unknown tenderness, moving at an even pace, expanding, and feeling there is so much more of me than my ageing body.

There is a beautiful stillness which I can carry inside me wherever I go, whatever I do. This seems in tune with the natural qualities possible for older people, maybe what we all imagine we will be when we are young, so to grow into what is naturally my elder way of being gives me a feeling of the grace offered to me at every level.

Dec 2017

Alison Valentine, 62 years - Frome, United Kingdom

Where do I start? The Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program For Women is such a powerful program, both revealing and confirming and also supportive in helping me discover and go to a deeper level of stillness within my body.

I have recently turned 60 and entered another decade of my life…

I had done an Esoteric Yoga course before, but never one that offered a particular focus on the aspect of being a woman and the connection with stillness.

Through this program, I have discovered stillness is a natural quality found in all women. It may be different for each of us, although the end result is the same – a deeper connection to who we are as a woman.

However, we don’t always live in and by this quality of stillness as work, children, deadlines, dramas and emotional issues can all get in the way of holding our connection to this stillness throughout our day. It takes time to build upon and nurture such a connection to this innate quality in our lives.

I feel the Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program For Women has offered me an opportunity to have a new beginning – an opportunity to start afresh and enjoy my later years with a deeper level of stillness and way of being.

Dec 2017

Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women is based on Esoteric Yoga as taught by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine.